About the series
The Teaching and Working in Troubled Times series (formerly 'Teaching in Troubled Times') began in 2017 as a series of timely dialogues elevating some of the most pressing social and political questions that enter our lives and our classrooms. The series has fermented vibrant discussion and delivered ‘on-the-ground’ tools to support our students’ complex lives. The series is co-hosted by the American Cultures Center, Academic Innovation Studio, Center for Teaching and Learning, and Division of Equity & Inclusion.
The Teaching in Troubled Times workshops will continue to build an arc of learning for the campus, bringing together experts from a cross-section of interests. The Teaching in Troubled Times workshop series will cumulatively present a unique opportunity to delve into the complications and opportunities our knowledge of student life at Berkeley brings. In this series of workshops, we will form a learning community that together will consider the meaning of inclusivity, acceptance, and belonging on and off our campus.
Topics
We've archived most of our past events with teaching tools, materials, and recommendations for instructors.
Voices after the vote: Finding respite in our communities following US elections
This session will be an open dialogue on the ways democratic climates impact communities, relationships, our work as educators and our own lived experiences. We'll begin by sharing what’s on our minds: What’s shaping our thoughts and actions right now? How are we responding to the political landscape? Together, we'll reflect on the role of teaching and working at Berkeley and its impact on communities during times of tension, polarization, and uncertainty.
Beyond Both Sides: Advancing Spaces for Exploration and Not False Binaries
On October 1, 2024 the Teaching and Working in Troubled Times program hosted the panel "Beyond Both Sides: Advancing Spaces for Exploration and Not False Binaries.” In this discussion, Berkeley faculty and staff from a variety of different departments came together to discuss how the concept of binaries shapes the work to advance justice and equity on campus. The panelists offered reflections on how they encounter and contend with binaries in their roles and offered recommendations for how faculty and staff can meet this political moment by analyzing, challenging, and thinking beyond the institutional and cultural binaries. Resource page
Assignment Design for Social Justice Education
Berkeley faculty from a variety of disciplines discussed instructional strategies and assignments they’ve developed to help students understand and confront contemporary concerns, and shared their experiences tackling thorny topics. Professors interested in bringing social issues into their course(s) but not sure how or where to start or professors already teaching about social justice looking for ideas and support attended. What does social justice pedagogy mean? What does this look like across different disciplines? Event Resources
Beyond Accommodations: Changing the Disability Frame
Discussions of disability on college campuses often focus on how we can support and accommodate individual needs and meet compliance requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. With this panel of and dialogue sessions, we hope to expand that important conversation. On November 18, 2019, Berkeley faculty, graduate student instructors, staff, and students were invited to think in creative and visionary ways about culture, structure, teaching and learning, and broader institutional transformation. Event Resources
Difficult Knowledge, Trauma Informed Pedagogy and Safe-ish Spaces
We invite many difficult experiences into our classrooms, historically intimate and distant, often through written and visual text depicting traumatic events and experiences. At the same time, we have many students bringing a history of trauma into the classroom, fighting a variety of battles that have been woven into their lives from childhood. Exploring the impact of this emotional and intellectual terrain, and on whom, is increasingly rooted in our pedagogy, and yet also entangled in dilemmas and sharp concerns. Event Resources
Squeezed on All Sides: Economic Pressures Facing Berkeley Students
In a high-cost area such as Berkeley, affordability is especially acute and impacts many aspects of students' lives. How can we address issues of equity and inclusion in light of the many aspects of students' lives beyond the financial challenges—both in our classrooms and on campus in general? At this event, faculty and staff discussed what campus resources exist to help address and alleviate these issues and what we, as individuals and as a campus, can and should do. Event Resources
How to Have Political Conversations in the Classroom
So many Americans are involved in ballot box politics, yet the country is polarized, partisan, and politicized. With sharp political differences seemingly not going away any time soon, how do we support robust discussions in our classrooms? How do we support our students to consider issues from immigration to gun control through deliberation and not shouting matches? On the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, with so much at stake on the national, state, and local level, this panel, and community discussion will consider how faculty are navigating the nation’s thorny politics and supporting political conversations in the classroom. Event Resources
Inviting Students to Bring Themselves to Class: Connecting Learning and Lived Experiences
In higher education, we want learning to be relevant to students’ lives, but how often do we explicitly incorporate students’ lives--who they are, what they know, where they come from--into our teaching and research? How do we take an asset-based approach, drawing upon the diversity of Berkeley's student population as well as our own subject matter expertise, to create a richer learning experience for everyone? What does this look like across different disciplines and what's at stake? Event Resources
More Than Words: In Conversation with the Language Of Racial and Social Justice-Making
Commitments to the work that connects diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging/justice, anti-racism, anti-Blackness, anti-white supremacy, and abolition work are deep and rich. Each of these terms also has motivations and genealogies. Events Resources
Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Dealing with Toxic Stresses on Campus and in our Classrooms
At the national level, the U.S. has seen an increase in hateful rhetoric and exclusionary policies directed at many identities and communities. The campus has been challenged by tensions around recent speaker events, as well as by increased policing, painful intergroup dynamics, and repeated instances of bias and harassment. How do we understand the collective stresses and traumas affecting our students? What is the impact of these stresses on their experience in the classroom and on their learning more broadly? How do we manage our own stress? Event Resources
Understanding UC Berkeley Students and their Experiences
This event was an open dialogue, supported by campus climate data from several recent surveys. Together, the speaker and attendees considered whether the survey results support their own experiences; how the data might shift expectations of relationships with students; and what resulting efforts individually and collectively could be designed to provide an equitable and fully inclusive classroom. Event Resources
What to Do If ICE Comes to Campus: Rights, Recommendations, and Resources
On February 26, 2018, in response to the increased and specifically targeted immigration enforcement in California, procedures and recommendations were shared at this workshop on how to best prepare and support all members of our undocumented community and how to respond to possible contact with officials. This forum provided an opportunity for detailed consideration of our individual concerns and collective needs. Resource page. Note: This page is currently under development - please check back later for updates!